175lb Hay Budden anvil questions, odd tag?

[capri_auto]

Hi everyone,

I have this 175lb class Hay Budden anvil. From what I gather, it was made in 1920 and is the 2 piece plate-less design. It looks like someone did a little damage to the edges with a plasma cutter or something. Being that the entire top half of the anvil is steel, can I more readily fill these in? Do I need to preheat, and what type of rod do you recommend? I will probably leave it as is for now, but may want to clean her up in the future. Work surface is true, but marked up a bit. Very good rebound.

Also, anyone have an idea what the significance of the brass tag could be? This was a bit of an impulse buy so I don't know too much about it.

 

[nadogail]

Probably an inventory tag, or a "Plant Property ID Number" from a previous owner.

 

[metlmunchr]

I agree it looks like a typical plant property ID tag. Most every piece of equipment in any large plant will have a tag similar to that one.

 

[matt_i]

Theres some "funny money" in manufacturing to depreciate capital assets that ultimately add up to reduce or avoid paying taxes.

I'm no more expert than that but it drives a bunch of irrational behavior when it comes to disposing of things that are on the asset list.